To tell everyone who goes cycling (and their kids) to wear a fucking helmet ?

[ApocalypseCheeseToastie]

Had a phonecall off my sis last night about eldest brother who's a keen, confident cyclist.

She'd phoned him to nag for something or other and found out he'd been laid up for the past ten days after flipping over the bonnet of a car, doing a here's Johnny moment through the windscreen (his head smashed the window) and flipping over the roof.

Luckily he's a bit of a cycling nerd, he wears a high vis vest, refelective strips on trousers etc and most crucially A DECENT FUCKING HELMET

The helmet he was wearing was smashed into little pieces, it protected him from major injury and ultimately saved his life. Leaving him with a few cracked ribs and a dodgy coller bone, without it he would have been killed, a 42 year old guy who has everything to live for. He would have left behind a family who love him, and a 12 year year old daughter who he lives for.

So please, do a shocked cheese a big favour and if you don't already have one, go out today, buy a fucking helmet for everyone, including the soddin dog if needs be.

I thank you.

I think we need fast lane sections for cycle paths, bit like a cycle motorway

DP usually does 20 plus mph on his bike, he's been flashed by speed cameras a few times Totally unsuitable for cycle paths alongside the likes of me trundling along at 10 MPH

Karstan Do you not agree with the seatbelt law either? Why are you so against helmets? I don't get it. Why argue against something that could save your life? If you don't want to wear a helmet then don't, I really don't give a shit, but like I said I would imagine that the poor person who has to scrape your brain off the road would care, as would the poor person who had to go and break the news to your family. If you don't care about your life why should I!

I remember a friend telling me about the dialogue below he had had earlier that morning, when he was in his bike:

Stranger: Hey you! put a helmet on!
Friend: It's none of your business!
Stranger: It is, I am the one who will go and scrap your brain off the pavement when you have an accident!

(obviously, someone from the forensic service, needless to say he really made an impression)

I have not read further than the third post and mine comes and sit just after someone mentioned about the same job some people do..

There is very good data that supports the use of seatbelts, something like a 70% fatality reduction in certain types of crashes. No such data exists for bike helmets.

I'm not against helmets but I object to people like the op suggesting that anyone who doesn't wear a "fucking helmet" is an idiot. I wear one sometimes, it's a decision based on probable risk, I'm not reckless, I value my life but you can't exclude all risk completely and it's a balancing act.

If you care about reducing deaths campaign for compulsory helmet wearing for pedestrians or car passengers, you'd save a lot more lives.

As for the comment about not caring about my life so why should you - words fail me.

YABU. Very U. And ill informed.

Maelstrom Yeah that's weird!

words fail me

wahoo!

My cousin is autistic. He is my age now, 35 and living in a home. His father was the only person he ever looked at or acknowledged. He is violent and considered dangerous as he is unable to control his sexual urges. 8 years ago, his father was cycling on a dual carriageway and was hit by a car and killed. At the inquest the coroner asked all present to remember to make loved ones wear a helmet beacuse it may well (although is never easy to prove) have saved his life.
My parents, educated, very left wing Guardian readers (not making a judgement, just trying to create a picture as they are very lefty) refuse to let their kids, my stepbrothers wear a helmet because they read in the paper that statistically kids are more likely to be hit by careless drivers who are lulled into a false sense of security by getting closer to the cyclist because they think they are protected.
Just wear a sodding helmet, yes they look silly but if all cyclists wore them it wouldn't.
As a driver, I know which I would prefer.

if you make your dc wear a helmet please please please make sure they take them off when they go off to play.
helmets + climbing frame make for very ugly accidents!

Although it is personal choice and, like seatbelt wearing does not assure you will survive an accident. I agree that drivers must be held accountable for PREVENTABLE accidents where cyclists are injured. However, in Hammersmith, I regularly find cyclists taking risks and behaving in a way that does NOT follow the highway code. Maybe both sides should be more accountable.

karstan hit the nail on the head, reckless driving can refer to both drivers and cyclists.

my mums a keen cyclist she has all the gear, leggings and t shirts all aerodynamic this that and all the other crap stuff you need. she is also one of the most vain ppl ive ever known in my life and even she wears a helmet she's had a couple of really bad falls - rather than accidents - but they have been enough to shake her up and make her glad she wears a helmet even if it gives her 5 minutes of helmet hair she's happier safe than sorry. hope your brother gets well soon cheese

Flowery "Seriously? People who would prefer cyclists to use cycle paths where they exist in decent form make you want to leave the country? It's a different opinion not persecution! Good lord! "

Jesus Christ. Flowery it is people with the Top Gear/Boy Racer attitude that make me want to leave the country. Did you not read my previous posts, where I described how a friend had lost a leg when killed by a driver (he was on the wrong side of the road, she was wearing a helmet). Or how my OH (when driving) witnessed a cyclist being thrown onto the windscreen of a van and the police didn't even bother to prosecute him.

It is people who take no exercise, who are common and have no manners, who are barely educated, who think only poor people cycle and rich people drive, who forget that driving is licensed for a reason, who are full of hate and target that hate for some strange reason against cyclists, who make me wish to return to living abroad.

I have no problem with using well built cycle paths. The one local to me that would take me into my nearest city (8 miles away) would actually entail a 10 mile meandering detour, making an 8 mile commute on road 20 mile off road one, is not suitable. There are not cycle paths most places I want to go. And quite frankly, reasonably wide country roads in quiet areas should not need cycle paths, but I don't feel safe cycling on them either, because of the number of idiotic boy racers who go zooming about as if it were a motorway!

prosecute the driver, not my OH

YANBU whatsoever. If cyclists insist on using roads they should protect themselves.

My BIL died after being hit by a car. My dh was told he would have survived had a helmet have been worn and taken the impact.

Virtual, what about idiotic cyclists? The type that don't have lights, or don't indicate, or cut up on roundabouts? What about those that insist on pavement and red light hopping? Or are neglecting them because you think boy racers are to blame for cyclists' injuries?

Helmets are not designed to take the impact from a collision with a car, they are tested to simulate the sort of fall that happens when no other vehicle is involved. I can't understand why a medical professional would tell someone something that is absolutely impossible to prove and is of no comfort to those left behind.

Well they're not made for looking fashionable, I'll give you that.

LadyOfTheManor Aah that's really sad

Karstan They may not have been tested for accidents involving a car but that by no means indicates that they wouldn't be helpful in some accidents. My dad was clipped by a car and fell sideways. Just as he would if he just fell off.

can i say that if you are going to go to the trouble of buying and wearing a helmet, that you WEAR IT PROPERLY

i lose count of the amount of (women i'm afraid) wearing the bloody thing like a bonnet on the back of their heads.

the most common accident on a bike is over the front

get it fitted, take the advice the fitter gives you and accept that it will probably affect your hairstyle a little.

I wear a helmet, otherwise I wouldn't be still here to post! I had a cycling accident earlier this year, smashed my face and glasses, broke my wrist but it could have been oh so much worse. The helmet bore the brunt of it so luckily no head injuries.

My brother got doored as a teenager and my parents made me promise to never ride my bike without one after that, think we wore them before then anyway.

YABU. I like to feel the wind in my hair

my mate at work wears a full face helmet - it broke his neck when he came of his bike no cars involved

A child at dd2 primary (yr4) and his mum lead an assembly last year about this - another my "helmet saved my life" . He wasn't in traffic but safely riding on a cycle track. Something happened- a pebble / pothole and ge was tipped off - ending up headfirst in bed of a dry stream 4 feet below the path- he was crossing one of those little bridges with low sides. Again the polystyrene of the helmet was in 2 pieces.

Your choice! I know accidents do happen and all that, but I'd rather my kids brains were protected. It would be worth thinking about legislation for this like car seats- adults can take their own risk but kids?